What do you suggest planting in roads and gas lines?

By Grant Woods,

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Question
I have a hunting lease of about 300 acres with no fields.There are 2 gas wells and a lot of logging roads and some gas lines. I can not cut down any trees. The amount of sun is limited. What would you recommend to plant on the roads and gas lines. I have done soil tests and am working on the results. We are blue collar workers so our budget does have limits. Thanks for any information you can give us. God Bless and thanks for giving our creator the glory

Bob,

I am thrilled to learn you are doing soil tests!!  Know that it’s very important to tell the soil lab what you intend to plant.  This is because different crops require different amounts of different nutrients to be productive.

It’s also good to consider that if the area is timbered than roads and gas lines that run north and south will receive much more shade and therefore retain more soil moisture!  Just the opposite is true for roads that run east and west.

What to plant depends on where (what state/climate) and the mission for the plots.  If the mission it only to attract deer during season, then appropriately fertilized forage wheat does a good job of attracting deer.  

If you wish to improve the amount of quality forage for the herd year round, then about 10% in clover (probably on the north south oriented openings) and the rest in Eagle Seed Forage soybeans would be a great plan.  Several universities have shown that Eagle Seed forage soybeans produce more tons of quality forage per dollar than any other quality forage crop.

Enjoy creation,

grant

February 7, 2016